


feels like i died days ago

by imasradiantasthesun



Series: i'm so sorry that you have to have a body [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Airbending & Airbenders, Bedtime Stories, Bending (Avatar), Body Horror, Dark, Earthbending & Earthbenders, Firebending & Firebenders, Gen, Horror, Waterbending & Waterbenders, scary campfire stories that could be told in-universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29372433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imasradiantasthesun/pseuds/imasradiantasthesun
Summary: Feels like I died days ago deep in my sleepI'm doing terrible thingsor, miscellaneous horror stories in bending
Series: i'm so sorry that you have to have a body [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2071563
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. no light, no light

**Author's Note:**

> fic title is from terrible things by brick + mortar
> 
> originally posted in my other fic, is it my fault the fallen embers burn. edited for formatting and clarity
> 
> enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I never knew daylight could be so violent_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title from no light, no light by florence + the machine
> 
> enjoy!

There once lived a renowned firebender on a small, remote island. He and his wife ran an elite firebending academy and were known for their innovative abilities. The man thought he had it all: a loving wife, an interesting job, and the children that he trained and looked after. He devoted himself to his work because of the joy it brought him. But eventually, his wife grew worried and told her husband that he needed to take a break. 

When he arrived home on the island, catastrophe had struck. No one knows what happened, but the firebender returned to a burnt down academy. The occupants had been dead for days, with maggots festering in their flesh and razed bones.

Some say the firebender went mad from the grisly sight. Others say he simply gave up on life. Some go so far as to claim that he was running from the vengeful families of his students. Either way, he ended up abandoning civilization to live in a cave on the far side of the island. The villagers believed that he wouldn’t be able to survive without Agni’s presence. 

For years, many people reported hearing someone, some _thing_ in that cave. It had been so long that the firebender’s legacy had already begun to live on as a story told to the island’s children - a tale of complacency, a warning about cowardice.

One day, local teenagers who had grown up with the story grew curious and decided to investigate the sounds that emanated from the cave. They packed supplies for the trip; those who weren’t firebenders carried weapons on them. The group forwent bending and lanterns, instead using the bioluminescent foxfire that grew in the cave to light their way. Despite all of this, they were not prepared for what they would find.

The firebender seemed to have undergone de-evolution. He was reborn in the dark, molded by it. His slimy skin was pale to the point of near translucency, allowing the group to see his seemingly glowing veins. The man’s - if he could still even be called that - dark auburn hair had grown long and matted, trailing after him like a tail as he practically slithered about on all fours.

It was a miracle he had survived at all; the firebender seemed to get his energy from the glowing fungi that surrounded him. But in the near-darkness, sight was not a necessity. The group of teenagers would not get too close out of fear, but survivors would later recount that it looked as if his eyelids were cauterized shut.

When the creature raised a clawed hand, foxfire bloomed in his green flame.

\----- 


	2. any moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I'm ready to blow, I can't stand it_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title and summary from explode by patrick stump

Airbenders always trained outside or in wide open rooms. Well, there’s a good reason for that. 

An Air Nomad was once meeting with friends in the Earth Kingdom to catch up. They were all gathered similar to how we are right now, but in an airtight, enclosed room created by earthbenders. The nomad showed her friends many airbending tricks, not realizing that every time she bent, the air pressure in the room increased. 

She bent many times throughout the night, so much so that when she opened the door at the end of the evening, there was an act of explosive decompression. 

Because the earthbent room was a sealed system, opening the door allowed air from inside to rush out. The pressure in the room dropped so greatly - and so rapidly - that air inside the people’s lungs was not able to leave their bodies safely. Everyone’s blood boiled immediately. As she was the closest one to it, the airbender’s body was instantly shot through the partially open door. She was bisected at the abdomen, and her internal organs were propelled a great distance out of her thoracic cavity. 

\----- 


	3. when it falls apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Were you ever lost?_   
>  _Was she ever found?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title and summary from space song by beach house

Long before the Air Nomad Genocide, before the North Pole had become so isolated, a group of waterbenders was exploring a series of underwater caves near Full Moon Bay in the Earth Kingdom.

One younger tribesperson became too curious and split off from the group. They found what seemed to be a large undiscovered cave with a soft, spongy floor. Just as the rest of the group caught up outside the cave, the bender entered alone despite the warnings. Immediately, the mouth of the cave snapped shut.

The others used their bending to try to save them. The benders could hear their friend cry for help as they resorted to using their hands to try to pry the entryway open. There was a clear division where the entrance had once been, and the group could feel ridges underneath their hands. They tried to force their way in, to no avail.

Running out of air, the group was forced to leave the bender screaming inside.

When the explorers returned to the spot, the shell of the "cave" was once again open.

And inside was a large, perfectly shiny pearl.

\----- 


	4. beyond all recognition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Now it's time for him to return to the earth_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> burn him down by kitsch club

There once was a great firebender of noble birth. He was powerful but too sure of himself. He accepted any sparring challenges that came his way, certain that he could take anyone, and he did so in front of an audience. It was during one of these challenges that he met his end.

The man wasn’t satisfied that he was _just_ facing off against an earthbender who was claimed to be a prodigy. He gloated that he could beat her with his hands tied behind his back. Unbeknownst to the woman, he had a trick up his sleeve: he could breathe flames like a _dragon._

It was a surprisingly fair fight. The earthbender learned quickly that trapping the man’s feet was ineffective, as he would blast fire from his mouth. She became increasingly frustrated as he used the match as an excuse to show off. Wanting to end the fight sooner rather than later, she bent stone around his head to pin him to the arena floor. The firebender writhed on the ground, but refused to surrender no matter how many times the woman told him to. Eventually, his body grew still.

Fearing she suffocated him, the earthbender removed the rock that covered his head. It was evident from his burns that he had used his breath of fire to try to break the stone, but instead it reflected back into his face.

Firebenders’ skin doesn’t burn easily, but when they tried to move his body out of the arena, what was left of the melted skin on his face slid right off.

\----- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you should really go check out my other fic called is it my fault the fallen embers burn!! these stories make a lot more sense (and seem better written) in the context of that fic. it's dark and has a good amount of body horror and gore, so if you like (or at least Tolerate) this one, then go check that one out!!!


	5. a livin' thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _It's a terrible thing to lose_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> livin' thing by elo

Once, a firebender was traveling with friends in Eternal Flame Cave. Parts of the cave are situated above a reservoir of natural gas that was accidentally set alight by a bender many years ago, and continues to burn to this day, hence its name. The system has many different tunnels and chambers branching off of the main cavern, so the group decided to split up.

While exploring, the firebender stuck her torso into a hole to investigate what was inside, but only found a dark cavern. She tried to fit her arm through the hole in order to light the way, but found that she was stuck.

She struggled to escape, even tried to blast through the rock, but it was all to no avail. The woman paused in her attempts so as to avoid draining her strength. When she did, she could hear something moving inside the darkness.

The firebender struggled anew, growing more and more desperate with each passing minute. She called out for her friends. The echoes of her unanswered screams - along with the skittering that seemed to be growing closer - taunted her. Fire erupted from her feet in order to catch the attention of anyone nearby. One of her friends _did_ notice from afar, but wrote it off as the cave’s eternal flame slipping through cracks in the ground. The woman soon grew tired from her efforts, succumbing to the darkness that enveloped her top section.

Later, when the group finally found her, they pulled her out by the legs while shouting encouragement to missing ears. When she had been freed, the friends stared at the bite marks gracing the bender’s shoulders that led up to nothing but the open stump of her neck.

\----- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh, so no head?


	6. he wanders the night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Can anybody find out_   
>  _Any other way_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> golden antlers by glass animals

There once was a Southern waterbender named Ujarak. He was ruthless in a fight and very stubborn, and had settled many disputes by simply freezing his adversary.

Ujarak was told not to travel one day, warned that an early snowstorm - it was Amiraijaut, the season when velvet falls off caribou-oxen's antlers - was expected. But of course, he didn’t listen.

After the storm had passed, other villagers went out to look for him. It wasn’t usually expected for anyone to survive a blizzard, but the searchers joked that if anything, Ujarak had probably made the storm bend to _his_ will, not the other way around. And they were right in one aspect: the man did survive the blizzard. At least, _initially_.

The search party looked high and low for him among the snowdrifts. They were close to giving up when someone spotted a lone caribou-ox that had strayed from its herd. From a distance, it looked like it was shedding, with long, stringy velvet hanging off of its red antlers.

When the group approached, they found that the animal’s legs were frozen to the ground. If it weren’t for the ice, the caribou-ox wouldn’t have been standing - its stomach was impaled by a large icicle. As the wind howled around the group, it was clear to them that the animal had fallen victim to a bender.

They never did find Ujarak’s body. But if the villagers had looked closer, they would have noticed that the caribou-ox had already shed its velvet. Ujarak must have encountered the animal, who probably thought he was a competing male during the mating season. The waterbender was never one to back down without a fight.

If only the villagers had looked up at the caribou-ox’s bloodstained antlers. Then they would have noticed the torn skin and shredded intestines hanging off of them like a halo around the dead animal’s head.

\----- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> everything looks so much longer on google docs


	7. losing my mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I'm the one you're using, please don't push me aside_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heart of glass by blondie (though i prefer miley cyrus's cover)

Not many know the story of Avatar Kun, and not just because they were the Earth Avatar from multiple cycles ago. Though most Avatars are told of their abilities once they have turned sixteen, Kun’s spiritual identity was not revealed to the world until they were well into their twenties.

You see, they were a member of the Hami Tribe; the Si Wong Desert is a vast area that is impossible to cross. And with only hot sand around, it was unlikely for Kun to ever need to bend any other elements. Even so, sandbending is very similar to waterbending, so if they ever _did_ waterbend, no one would be able to tell.

Their identity as the Avatar was revealed while trading with the beetle-headed merchants. The story goes that when the business deal didn’t go in Kun’s favor, they had intended to bend the sand around the merchants. But somehow, they ended up ripping the water out of a merchant’s body.

Kun was immediately taken by the merchants to the nearest town. They were then sent to Ba Sing Se, where they were greeted by the Earth Queen and forced into training. Being forced from their home and sent all over the world to learn bending types they had never even _seen_ before was a great shock to Kun. It’s been said that they went mad with the pressure of being the Avatar. Unwilling to accept their responsibility, Kun fled.

Who witnessed their final acts is disputed. Some say their tribe; others, the beetle-headed merchants who had stolen them in the first place. No matter who it was, it must have been a grisly sight to see.

In a fit of insanity, Kun bent the surrounding sand to cover them from shoulder to toe, then heated their skin. In the first ever case of glassbending, the Avatar then had the melted sand cover their head. The glass slowly hardened as they suffocated to death, stained red by their blood.

Legend has it that their bodily statue can still be found somewhere in the Si Wong Desert, buried in sand.

\----- 


	8. go sleep forever end to dust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I don't regret it, but it's sad anyway_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> vanished by crystal castles

A rich and noble earthbender once lost her eye on the battlefield. She was given a fake one with an iris made out of green crystal to compensate, but she wasn’t allowed back into the army because of her partial blindness.

The woman loved how the jade eye looked and was showered in compliments for it. She quickly became vain. When the eye lost its dazzling effect on others, she ripped out her fingernails and replaced them with crystals.

That wasn’t enough for the noblewoman; she wanted to look like a living gem. She began to spend hours at a time bathing in water that had tiny minerals and crystals in it. The effect was to make her skin shiny and glittering. Over time, the different minerals filled her pores, giving her an opalescent sheen.

Eventually, when the earthbender looked in the mirror, she would see jewels embedded in her cheeks, in her shoulders, in her hips. Only her real eye remained unaffected - that she had to keep in order to observe her own beauty. Showered in affection, she became further obsessed and increased the amount of time spent bathing in the crystals. With this, she gradually had more and more trouble moving.

One day, the woman had a servant prepare another crystal bath in preparation for a royal function. The maid helped her into the tub before leaving her to soak. Later, she knocked on the door, asking for permission to enter so that she could ready her for the party.

When the servant girl entered the bathroom, she found the noble earthbender’s completely petrified jeweled body lying stiff in the bath. She held a hand out in front of the woman’s mouth to check for the heat of a breath as the bathwater continued to steam around the body.

During the autopsy, they had to use a chisel to crack her crystalline body open. When they did, they found her heart still slowly beating.

\----- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!!
> 
> go check out my other fics, especially [is it my fault the fallen embers burn](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27553729) which these stories were originally written for (and are included in!)
> 
> \- ez <3


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